A Cuban-born Baptist ethicist told a recent interfaith audience that the religious obligation in dealing with America’s immigration crisis runs deeper than showing “the virtue of hospitality.” “Hospitality assumes that I own the house, and out of the goodness of…
Trump border policies treat asylum seekers as criminals, advocate says
Separating immigrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border was bad enough, but it was even more tragic when asylum-seeking families were ripped apart while trying to get into the country, immigrant advocate Sue Smith says.
Church’s ‘awakening’ pilgrimage traces steps of detained immigrants
Two dozen members of a progressive Baptist church in North Carolina followed the road from immigration court in Charlotte to a notorious ICE prison in Georgia during a two-day pilgrimage protesting the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward unauthorized border crossings…
Women of faith confront immigration policy at U.S. border
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter joined other female clergy this week to learn more about and advocate on behalf of families separated by U.S. immigration policy at the U.S. border with Mexico. The 11-member delegation – also including…
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CBF church offers ‘open door’ to Hispanic community with legal aid ministry
“Can you imagine living in a place where you didn’t think there were even 50 people who cared about you?”
That’s why Blake Hart and Oakland Baptist Church, SC are partnering to renew God’s world through Puerta Abierta, a Department of Justice-accredited organization helping immigrants in Rock Hill access vital legal assistance for issues in the areas of naturalization, family-based immigration, temporary legal status, crimes of domestic violence and more.
Opposition to Trump ‘zero-tolerance’ must go grassroots, organizers say
Public outrage over President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy has given way this week to controversial Supreme Court rulings, including one upholding the president’s Muslim-focused travel ban. But religious and other non-profit groups that serve immigrants have not taken their…
Baptist Joint Committee head ‘disappointed’ by Supreme Court decision upholding White House travel ban
The head of a Baptist religious liberty watchdog agency voiced disappointment with Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision upholding President Donald Trump’s so-called Muslim ban. “We are deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s refusal to repudiate policy rooted in animus against Muslims,”…
Cooperative Baptists trek to border for prayer, advocacy outside migrant child care center
A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship subsidiary organized a weekend vigil outside a former Walmart in Brownsville, Texas, re-purposed as the country’s largest migrant child care center to pray for children separated from their families while seeking asylum in the United States….
Baptist leaders accuse Justice Department of twisting scripture to defend separating children from families at U.S. border
Baptist leaders joined a chorus of voices criticizing U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions for using the Bible to defend the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from migrant parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Addressing criticism by church leaders of the…
Decades of life with the ‘Lost Boys’ from South Sudan: Charlotte church loves their neighbors as themselves
Martha Kearse knew the young men were out of their element as soon as she saw them milling in bewilderment at the grocery store’s vast array of options. Very tall, very thin and very confused, they stood out like flies in a glass of milk. Kearse suspected they were some of the Lost Boys of South Sudan that she’d seen featured on the TV news magazine 60 Minutes.
Photo Gallery: Lost Boys in photos
All photos taken in this photo gallery of the Lost Boys are by Norman Jameson. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”16″ gal_title=”Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte”] In this ‘Welcoming the Stranger’ series, we learn what happens when one…
A white Jesus can’t save a brown child
I was raised in a brown evangelical church in a small, predominantly white town in central Texas. Our “mother” church was one of the many First Baptist Churches in the Texas Bible Belt. Our congregation was composed mainly of poor, uneducated, largely undocumented migrants from rural Mexico. And while we were a brown church, the Jesus we worshiped was white.